Trion Worlds announces the launch of RIFT Lite, which allows anyone with a Trion account to experience the first 20 levels of RIFT for free with no playtime restrictions. Word is: "Players can create a character and experience the first 20 levels in the plane-besieged world of Telara, working their way through the zones of Terminus, Mathosia, Freemarch, Silverwood, and visiting their faction’s capital cities." This will launch alongside the upcoming version 1.7 "Carnivals of the Ascended" update for the MMORPG. This page has details on the version 1.7 update, which is "coming soon," and here are some "quality of life" improvements it will bring:

Plus the additional Slivers, plus the constant flow of world events, plus the new play mode of Instant Adventure (I've done almost nothing but IA in Rift since it released), plus an additional warfront, plus tons of other features ad improvements...

I think Cutter is just mad that his F2P prediction for Rift is a total bust...